Jan 28, 2013

After being on vacation for a week, it felt great to get back into my normal routine. My morning started at the gym where I ran/walked 2 miles. Then I came home to make this purple smoothie with frozen blueberries, a banana, and a little Greek yogurt and PB2 for protein.

PB2, if you're not familiar, is a roasted peanut powder, made with just roasted peanuts, salt and sugar. No artificial ingredients, it's non-GMO, and 2 tablespoons contains just 1.5 g of fat so it's a perfect way to enjoy peanut butter, without the added fat. To make it into peanut butter, you simply add a little water.

Personally, I love adding it to my smoothies but when I have a sandwich, I stick with the real thing. If you want to use regular peanut butter here, 1/2 tablespoon is the equivalent to maintain the same calories and weight watcher points.

Weight Watchers Note: I added the fruit in recipe builder, but I will leave it up to you if you want to count the fruit or keep it 0 points. Since I couldn't get a clear answer, and some Smoothie recipes on the Weight Watcher website include the fruit, while other recipes do not, I decided to count them.

my naturopath suggested using nut butter (almond butter is more nutritious than p.b.) and water instead of almond milk - that way you get the thickness and don't need the "milk". also, throwing in a teaspoon or two of ground flax seed is a great way to add more nutrition.

7 Pts is a lot! When you actually look at the recipe though it really could be 3 points couldn't it? 1 pt for the yogurt, 1 pt for PB2, and 1 pt for the almond milk? When you put it in the recipe builder a banana is 3 pts and they add 1 pt for the blueberries, equaling 7.

This is very confusing to me, too. I have been counting my smoothies as 2 points, when I don't use PB2. I tried the recipe builder and it came up to like 8!! But if I add the same ingredients together as a "meal" in the WW app, it still comes out 2. Grrrrr.

I copied some info in a reply below that came directly from WW. It has something to do with the overall nutritional info. It says that if it is truly fresh fruit that is being added, it can count as zero!! :)

I have been making my smoothies with a banana, a cup of frozen berries, 1/2 cup FF greek yogurt (1 pt), 1 cup of Silk unsweetened almond milk (1 pt) and ice. Total of 2 pts for a BIG serving.

Many brands of almond milk are sold in cartons in the baking aisle or near cereal since it doesn't have to be refrigerated until you open it. That is how they sell it at Trader Joe's or Whole Foods or even regular grocery stores. I have never bought the refrigerated kind, it is more expensive usually.

I love using PB2 in smoothies! I usually just do banana, PB2, greek yogurt, milk, and spinach, but I will have to try this with blueberries too. To the person above, I find these smoothies (especially with greek yogurt + PB2) to definitely be filling for a meal. Unsweetened almond milk is in the refrigerated section, with the other milk alternatives.

Gina, I am new to WW (but not to your blog, have loved your recipes for years!), and I am wondering about the 0 PP fruits and veggies. I have heard that 0 PP fruits and veggies should be counted in recipes but not when consumed raw, but with something simple like a smoothie, I don't count them. Is that wrong? So far I have been losing at least 1 lb/week so I haven't been too concerned that I'm abusing my 0 PP foods.

I don't have any greek yogurt on hand..I have nonfat vanilla...since its more watery, do you think I should still use 1/2 cup and use less almond milk? (I'm not on WW, so points don't matter..just smoothie consistency.). I'll probably freeze my banana too.

I love your website and it has helped me in my Bridal Diet on WW. Just a quick question Gina...how is this smoothie 7 points if it only has milk pb2 and yogurt that count as points. Bananas and blueberries are free...aren't they? I am still learning! Thanks again for this AMAZING site!

Aha!! Found this answer on the WW forum!!----------------------------------------"When I add fruit to the recipes I create in the Recipe Builder, it counts PointsPlus values for it! I thought fruit was zero?

Just as we've always done with 0 PointsPlus value vegetables, 0 PointsPlus value fresh fruits contribute toward the total PointsPlus values of a recipe, whether it's a Weight Watchers recipe or one you build yourself in the Recipe Builder.

The technical explanation is that because recipes are calculated based on the total grams of fat, fiber, protein and carbs for all their ingredients.

As one poster on the Message Boards, DANI_THE_GECKO, sagely points out: “The recipe builder only knows that you input nutritional information. It does not know if it's fruit, green beans or heavy cream."

But why do we do it this way? There are a couple of very good reasons why we count fruits and veggies in our recipes:

Our recipes often appear in articles and magazines nationally, so we need to provide the calories and nutrient content, as many recipes published elsewhere do.Once vegetables and fruit are elements in a prepared recipe, the experience of eating them changes. Few people overeat carrots — but they might overeat carrot cake.

If your “recipe" is truly just a few pieces of fruit, then you might want to record it in your Tracker as separate items or as a “meal" — the latter looks at each item separately and then adds up all the PointsPlus values. Because all the items have 0 PointsPlus values, the total will also be zero."

Thank you!!! I have been having smoothies for lunch for the past couple of weeks (kale, spinach, cucumber, banana, blueberries and almond milk) and the total has been around 7 points in the recipe builder. Whew. I'm glad I can knock that off :)

I also wonder about the points+ value... If the fruits are 0 raw and all you are doing is blending them and keeping them cold (blending with ice), how does that add points? The PB2 and yogurt make sense, but the fruit I just don't get it! I'd never eat a smoothie that was so many points!! But this looks and sounds lovely.

This was DELICIOUS!!! I used almond butter. Never heard of PB2 until today. I'm on my way to Amazon to get some...thank you for another great recipe, and the lead on the PB2! (So excited to get the flavor and protein without the fat.)

Have you checked out Peanut Flour? It is the same thing, but much cheaper and NO SUGAR added (like in PB2). I use it every day. Love it. I have found it a couple places, but usually buy it from iherb.com. Great recipe!

Justade this smoothie for lunch and it is fantastic. I didn't have any Greek yogurt so used 4 oz. of fat-free vanilla yogurt. Not sure of this affected the points but it is really good! Thanks again for a great recipe.

Justade this smoothie for lunch and it is fantastic. I didn't have any Greek yogurt so used 4 oz. of fat-free vanilla yogurt. Not sure of this affected the points but it is really good! Thanks again for a great recipe.

I'm a Weight Watcher and the fruits and veggies that are no points are NO POINTS whether they are eaten raw or cooked. There are, however, some fruits and veggies that have points values to them.If you don't like bananas, you could substitute it with peaches, other berries, pears, mangos, cantalope, papayas, the list goes on. I have made smoothies with banana's, peaches, bluberries, mango, and cantalope. Any combination will do, just pick the fruits you like. I also buy WW smoothies which are only bought where WW meetings are held. You don't have to be a WW to buy them. Just find a WW meeting place. And they are good!

I am a WW Leader. As far as the question about the points plus values. You can choose to use the total that Gina got from the recipe builder or you can choose to count individual ingredients and not count the fruit. Fruit in its natural state fills you up and keeps you satisfied longer. So you be the judge and use the scale as your guide.

I am completely with you. Love PB2 in smoothies but stick to natural peanut butter or nut butters for baking and sandwich/spread purposes. I usually make a chocolate protein smoothie with bananas and PB2 and would not have thought to use blueberries. I will have to try this soon! Thanks!

Just catching up on some of my favorite blogs. I have everything but the PB2 and of course was going to ask what it was but decided to scroll through some comments before I embarrass myself. I'll use regular until I get some almond butter. I'm not a huge fan of peanut butter but I love when I run across something to use up an ingredient that will go bad soon. (extra blueberries) Just a thought.....what about Nutella? hehe it is a form of nut butter. Can't wait to try out in the morning. I've tried many of your recipes. Keep them coming.Theresa

Better 'n Peanut Butter is another low cal/low fat PB alternative that iI use. I buy it at Target -- here is their website: http://www.betternpeanutbutter.com/index.php

In answer to the "to count or not to count" fruit debate, this is what I was told from the start:If you eat fruit in its natural, unprocessed state it is FREE. If you blend, juice or similarly process fresh fruit it is NO LONGER FREE. The 'processing' is the key here; metabolizing the fruit is what causes itt to be 'free'. If you blend the same fruit in a smoothie you have to count the fruitl points.

This is DELICIOUS! I used regular peanut butter cause that's what I had, and I only used 1/2 Tb and it was just so yummy. I will be making this again tomorrow for breakfast, for sure. Thanks for the idea!

I never count points for fruit or veggies. It seems to be the one major flaw in the Weight Watchers system. It doesn't make sense that fruits and veggies are zero points if you simply consume them as part of a meal, yet somehow they suddenly have points values if they're part of a recipe. Either they're zero or they're not. I'm sticking with zero points, which has been working for me weight-loss wise. In that case, the smoothie would only be 2 points (1 point for the yogurt, 1 point for the PB2, and 0 points for the almond milk). Maybe round up to 3 points just to be conservative. But 7 really seems like overkill, even though I understand that's what the WW Recipe Builder says.